16 Years Later
by Genius-626
Summary: Megamind and Roxanne have a daughter, Mandy, who doesn't fit in. What evil tries to mess with her head? What new technology will rival that of Megamind's creation? Can Megamind save Metro City and his daughter from a new Overlord? Will she need saving?
1. Life So Far

**OK, my second published fanfic ever! Cool, hope you like it. I thought this up in Spanish class today by the way ;) **

**This was originally published on fanpop, but only two of my friends read it, so I hope I get some more feedback—and I like all sorts of feedback, so feel free  
**

16 Years Later

Chapter 1: Life so far

6:00 AM

The sun comes up early in the morning on an apartment building in Metro City. Most teenagers would either still be in bed or have just gotten started getting ready for school. Not Mandy, she's been up for hours working on her new invention. It's taken her months to perfect her practice on brain chemistry, and today she was going to upgrade her already robotized dog, Millie. She'd rescued Millie just two years before when she was deathly ill and managed to save her with her dad's help.

She listened to her iPod whenever she was doing mechanical work, so her regard for others in the building was very little. And this kind of invention made _a lot_ of noise.

"Her teachers complain that she falls asleep in class." Roxanne said, still lying in bed. "Should we tell them that she gets up at 3:00 o'clock in the morning and builds space ships for NASA?"

"I don't see the use in telling them." Megamind said. "They'll just try to council our parenting. I think I know how to parent! I've done it for fifteen years and she's the smartest teenager probably in the world!"

"Honey, even if you didn't raise her, she'd still be the smartest teenager in the world, that's genetic."

"Why can't she just be home schooled again? I love spending that much time with her. I also love teaching her physics." Megamind said, sitting up.

"_Teaching_ physics? More like _experimenting_ with the _laws_ of physics. Do you know how many times the Fire Department had to come to the lair?" Roxanne said, also sitting up.

"It was only _22 times_." Megamind said, as it was nothing.

Roxanne stopped for a second, rethinking her come back. "I was going to say 'too many times to count,' but apparently you counted. Either way, she's finishing high school."

"Come on! She has higher than a 4.0 GPA and she's bored!"

"She needs to be social. If she's home schooled her whole life, she'll end up some introverted-evil genius or something."

"OK, genius is genetic, but not evil, she knows better than that. And the only 'social' activity she's participating in is doing her so called 'friends' homework!"

"She stopped doing that a month ago!"

"Then you didn't see me burn 3 tons of essay papers yesterday! She probably doesn't know how to say 'no' to them."

"Why? She says 'no' to you every day."

Their conversation was interrupted by an abrupt open swinging of their door. Mandy came in ready and dressed for school. Her long black hair, even parted down the middle and pulled into a pony tail always found a way to cover her eyes. Her blue skin was perfect in Megamind's eyes and he hated how she hid the pink tips of her ears with her hair.

"Wow, you guys are talkative this morning. I'm gonna walk to school now."

"You'll be more than an hour early." Roxanne said.

"I'll walk slow." she tried to convince them. She knew they didn't approve of her being alone in the city for too long, but she was restless. They knew she didn't go straight to school, she was never a fan of school.

"You can't walk, it's raining." Megamind added.

Mandy looked across the room at the window. It was a perfectly clear day. "It's not raining."  
Megamind quickly opened the drawer of his night stand to get his weather remote, but Roxanne stopped him.

"Don't even think about it." She said. She turned to her daughter. "You can go ahead, Mandy. On one condition- I don't want another call today from a teacher saying you fell asleep in their class, got it?"

"...Fine." Mandy reluctantly agreed.

"Why can't you be a normal teenager who wakes up late to school?" Megamind asked, not expecting a real answer.

"Normal is recessive in this family." Roxanne joked, although at the same time, it was mostly true.

"Very true, mom." Mandy agreed. "Maybe you'll get a normal grandkid someday."

Megamind guffawed. "Let's...wait a very long time for that to happen."

"Dad!" Mandy said, almost embarrassed. "Seriously? Whatever. I'm leaving now. Bye." She turned around and took the door handle.

"Try to _enjoy_ school today." Megamind said, mispronouncing "school."

Mandy laughed at his mispronunciation and closed the door behind her.

"We love you!" Roxanne added. They could hear her saying, "Yeah, yeah, I know" through the wall. They heard the front door open and close.

Megamind sighed. "They grow up so fast."

6:00 PM  
Roxanne entered her apartment to find her husband flipping through TV channels. "Hi, honey." She said.

Megamind mechanically said "hi" as she walked around the couch and sat next to him. She took the remote from his hand and turned off the TV. He immediately sat up and sighed in relief.

"Do you know how addicting watching television is when no one's home? We should really get rid of it; I can feel my brain rotting just by looking at it!"

"No one's home? Did Mandy come home after school?"

"Yes, but she left a few hours ago. She was going to meet Isaac somewhere."

"Isaac again, huh? So where's Minion?"

Megamind attempted to avoid the question by changing the subject, but it was no use. Roxanne knew him too well.

"Minion is...spying on them."

"Hmph." Roxanne smirked and looked away into the distance, knowing that her vague response would annoy him. It did.

"What? You should know me by now, I hardly ever let her out of my sight."

"You should really leave her alone. She needs to live her own life...without you always looking over her shoulder."

Megamind started to say something, but gave up, knowing that she was somewhat right. He slouched and crossed his arms, almost in denial, but called Minion on his watch anyway.

"Minion, are you there?"

After a delayed pause, "Yes, sir."

"I need you to fall back."

delay..."Why, sir?"

"Because I said so."

"Sir, I feel Roxanne had a hand in persuading you to do this."

"Roxanne has nothing to do with my decision..." Megamind could feel her eyes on him. "Ok, maybe a little. Just fall back!"

"I will as soon as I'm done eating my fries."

"Good-wait, why are you eating? I told you to look after Mandy."

"I know, that's what I did, but she saw me and made me sit with her until you called. I believe you've been busted, sir. By both women in the family, might I add."

Megamind glanced over at Roxanne, defeated once more, then back at his watch.

"Well...just be home before seven."

"Got it, daddy." Mandy's voice came on, she was laughing. Even if it was at him, Megamind loved to hear her laugh.

"Megamind out." He said as he switched his watch back to normal.

Silence. Defeated silence. But he made a quick rebound. "You know," Megamind began in sudden confidence, "that should count as being social-"

Roxanne shrugged off his attempt to be right for once. "Oh please! That so does not count, they've been friends for a long time-"

"Exactly, they're friends, that's being social-"

"He's her only real friend!"

"I only had one friend-"

"That's different!"

"How is that different! Tell me how that's different!"

Now they were half joking, laughing at themselves for dragging the same argument on for so long.

"You know," Megamind said, "you were my second friend. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Yeah, because I was disguised as someone else before you found out and dumped me. In the rain!"

"Are you ever going to let that go?"

"No, never." Megamind said sarcastically, smiling at her. Roxanne scooted closer to him and they both leaned in for a kiss. Right before their lips touched, Minion barged in.

"We're home!" Minion practically sang.

Both Megamind and Roxanne jumped in surprise. Megamind looked at Minion with an almost annoyed look on his face.

"You could have warned us." He said dryly.

Minion smiled. "Sorry."

Mandy and Isaac walked in and went straight for her room. "Hey mom, dad." Mandy said. Millie came bounding across the room, greeting her master.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Ritchie." Isaac said.

"We're gonna work on our science project."

Neither of her parents had to remind her not to do all of the work because of their security with Isaac. They've only been friends since she entered high school two years ago, but he was pretty trustworthy and he demanded to do at least half of the work for every project they did.

"When does your dad want you back home?" Roxanne asked.

Isaac shrugged. "He didn't say."

Roxanne had never personally met Isaac's father, but she'd talked over the phone with him before. He had a very low voice and he sounded serious, but nice. Roxanne turned to Minion and waited until the kids were upstairs. "Minion, why do you listen to him?" She said, pointing to Megamind.

"Why wouldn't I listen to him?"

"He tells you to go spy on our daughter and you listen to him?"

Megamind scooted closer to her. "Hello? I'm still here!"

"Well, Mrs. Ritchie," Minion began, ignoring Megamind, "I've been taking orders from him all my life-"

"Minus the last seventeen years."

"True, but it only feels natural to do as he says, even though we aren't partners in crime anymore. Also, I like spying."

Roxanne found that kind of weird, but then again, she found Megamind and Minion weird in every way, so most weirdness had become normal.

"I'm gonna go wash the dishes." Minion said, excusing himself. Roxanne also found it weird that he liked doing the chores, but she never complained about that.

"And...we're alone again." Megamind said, slipping his arm around her waist. "I do have my reasons for spying."

"Oh really? And what would that be?" Roxanne asked.

"Ever since Mandy was little, I've been worried about...everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything. I knew she wasn't going to have a normal life. But it's not just that. After she was born, the only nightmares I've ever had were about her being kidnapped."

Roxanne nodded. "Well, that makes sense. You're a super hero and all, enemies might try to kidnap her, but no one's even been able to rob a bank after you switched sides."

"Yes, but I'm not just worried about super villains or enemies, but about...the government!"Megamind said dramatically.

"Why on earth would the government want to kidnap Mandy?"said, astonished that his imagination would go that far.

"To bribe me! Or, something. Think about it, they've been calling and sending mail for years now, they want me to make them weapons for the military, but I don't want to! They'll eventually try something-"

"Megamind, you're over thinking this!"

"Am I? Isn't it normal for a father to be protective?"

"Well, to an extent," Roxanne said, putting her arms around him. "But you seriously need to relax. Mandy is safe as long as she's in Metro City; as long as we're here."

**Hope you liked that taste of the story, because there's more!**


	2. Life Long Secrets

**I'm grateful for all the feedback, so please review often :)**

16 Years Later

Chapter 2: Lifelong secrets

Friday, 9:00 PM

Mandy walked up to the museum alone with her unpleasant memories of the day clouding her consciousness. The cold night gave her an excuse to hide half of her face in her scarf and to cross her arms as if to keep herself warm, but in reality, it was to keep her emotions hidden.

She walked up to the ticket booth and the man let her in without a word. All of the employees knew her; she came often and usually by herself. Once she stepped inside, she felt more at home than she had all day. She hadn't gone home yet, but she knew her father had a tracking device on her phone. She didn't even feel like talking.

It was crowded today, for some reason. As she walked through the halls to the elevator, she could feel the eyes of various different types of people either glancing at her or staring. She would usually meet the eyes of those younger than her and smile, but she rarely said a word. It was the brief recognition that delighted the children.

Every so often, a group of teenagers would try to strike up a conversation with her, bring her to a certain part of the museum and ask her questions about her father. Most of the time, she could answer and have an OK time with them, but not always. If she saw anyone she knew from school, she tried to avoid them, but her evasions didn't always work. Mandy was naturally outgoing, but at school, she tried to stay invisible—a hard task. The popular kids had a knack for finding her just about anywhere; a skill she despised. It was enough being Megamind's daughter, the fact that she was the only 14 year old in the 12th grade added to her "stardom" at school, making it impossible to have one moment alone from people she'd rather not be with.

Although her parents thought she had no friends and mostly hung out with Isaac, they were only half right. It was true that Isaac was her only real friend, but she found it very difficult to escape her popular life or even talk to him during school hours. It was like she a different person at school, a shy and miserable no one held up on a pedestal for her heritage, at the same time on the bottom of the food chain for the same reason. It was all a confusing mess, and she hadn't the heart to tell her parents the truth of her stress, it would only worry them, and to worry the protector of the entire city with her personal problems was the last thing she wanted to do.

She walked into the elevator; she was almost alone until a last minute teenager ran in. Mandy couldn't believe it, out of the entire student body and Jeffrey was the one she was stuck in an elevator with?

Jeff was out of breath from running.

Mandy sighed. "Big crowd today." she said, as if nothing had happened at school that day.

He looked at her, obviously hiding his astonishment of her saying something casual to him.

"You could've told me to hold the door for you." Mandy said.

He was still breathing pretty hard. "Well, I don't think you could've heard me even if I yelled. It's pretty loud down there."

Mandy nodded. "True."

There was some silence. She'd never really talked to a teen that didn't have something to say to her.

"Sorry, for today. Those guys are jerks. I don't know why I let them hang around me." Mandy said in an unwilling confession. It's not that she didn't want to tell him the truth-because he deserved it-but she didn't want to admit her own flaws to herself.

"Yeah." Jeff said. "But-I-I should be the one apologizing. I'm the one who got you into that mess."

"Don't waste your breath, you're not gonna convince me." Mandy said, smarmily. She stopped, then cringed at herself. "Sorry, I hang with the wrong crowd too often, it's easy to pick up a bad attitude from them." she sighed heavier this time.

Her melancholy tone gave Jeff a chill down his spine. Guilt racked his brain, but he was able to keep it hidden.

"I can't escape them." Mandy added breathlessly.

The elevator stopped and they both walked out.

"You know, you can break free if you really try." Jeff said. Mandy glanced at him and he froze for a moment, as if her eyes could cut through his chest and into his heart. He tried to speak up. "I-I'm Isaac's friend." He lied.

"Oh, you are? So am I. Well, I wish I was a better friend. I hardly see him at school."

"But that's not your fault. Isaac, you know he's all into sociology," another lie, "he tells me that you're basically stuck because of your...fame, I guess. You're like royalty in this city, it's the fact that, well-" He stopped when he met Mandy's eyes. She was sad, and he could tell that something else was upsetting her. "Mandy," Jeff started over, "y-you can hang with me and Isaac in the library and ignore those jerks. They just want to be seen with you, they don't actually care-"

"I know, Jeffrey. I know. And, that's exactly what I tried to do today. I tried to step out of that boundary I've put myself in. But-" Mandy stopped herself. Something caught her attention below them. They'd been aimlessly walking around the giant statue of her father and were now looking down from the top of the building. Mandy could see her mother's car parked across the street from the museum and her parents getting out. Her father started off running but stopped, probably because her mother had stopped him.

"Oh, dad." Mandy said under her breath.

Jeff was watching too and he knew he had to leave soon. "Well, I guess-no, I _will be_seeing you at school." Jeff said, turning and walking away.

He was half way to the elevator when Mandy tried to stop him. "I don't know if I can do that-"

"I'll be seeing you, don't deny it!" Jeff reassured her. His sudden determination made her laugh. Jeff had never heard her laugh before and all he could do was smile and wave.

As he walked into the elevator, all he could think about was his terrible regret for tricking her. He knew what invisible crimes lied in the future and how deep into them he already was. He hated how much he liked her; how much he wanted her to have a normal life, just like how he wanted the same thing. He pitied them both, but at the time, there was nothing he could do.

…

"Megamind, you can't just barge in there!" Roxanne said, running after him. "Remember the last time you did that?"

Megamind stood a few feet from the building steps and turned to Roxanne. "Yeah, I was surrounded by a mob all day and I lost my favorite pair of boots, but I think my daughter is more important than my making it out alive!"

Roxanne almost rolled her eyes at how dramatic he made everything. "Would you listen to me for two seconds? She comes here all the time! She probably just had a bad day and didn't want to come home. That's all."

"Is this a normal teenage girl...thing, or something, because you're making it sound like that."

"I'm just saying, you're blowing this way out of proportion!"

"She should've called one of us if she wasn't going to come home!"

"She knows you track her everywhere she goes, so why should she?"

"Who's side are you on?"

"When were there sides to begin with? We're one family, and apparently, we have some problems." Roxanne said as she crossed her arms.

They both stared at each other for a moment, at first angry with each other, but quickly realizing that getting angry was pointless.

"We don't have problems, Roxanne. I have problems." Megamind said. "I'm sorry for overreacting."  
Roxanne sighed and took his hand. "Come on, let's use the secret entrance."

…

Mandy stood alone in the cold once again. She leaned on the rail and rested her head on her crossed arms. A moment ago, she was thinking of Jeffrey and how weird he'd acted. At first, he was speechless, like she was a movie star or something. Then, he was completely sure that she was able to change and just drop her popularity and hang out with her real friends without consequences. But how could he have so much confidence in her after what happened that day? And how could she just tell Jeff what was on her mind? She was never able to tell anyone what she really felt about something important. Was this normal? It had to be, what else could be causing her so much stress?

Now she was thinking about the suspension slip burning a hole in her pocket. It was her fifth one this year. She skipped class much too often, and usually to avoid passing period, as ridiculous as it sounded.

Before she could think any further, she heard her parent's voices coming from the secret entrance.

"It's about time." she said to herself. To her surprise, there was no running to her or yelling at her; no sign that she was in trouble. She was used to being a troublemaker. Sleeping in class, being a little too creative in chemistry class, impulsively dissecting the fire alarm just for the heck of it, she got in all sorts of trouble. She wasn't mean, she was just bored and lonely. But today was different, today was a mistake.

Her parents came from behind and were quiet for a while. Roxanne took her daughter's shoulders and broke the silence.

"So, anything bothering you?" she asked. "Anything at school?"

"Besides that principal who can't take a joke?" Megamind said under his breath.

"Megamind!" Roxanne warned.

"It's alright mom, he's totally right." Mandy said. She caught her mom's evil eye. "Well...I think...oh, I don't know anymore!" Mandy dropped her head down on her crossed arms and let her hair hang down over her face.

"I feel like I'm being watched all the time! I have no freedom!" Mandy confessed.

Megamind looked behind them and found people watching them as they briskly walked past.

"Tell me about it." He said. Roxanne slapped his arm in disapproval.

"I don't know what to do! I'm not bad, I'm just bored."

Megamind had an "I told you so" face on, but Roxanne countered with a "really?" right back at him.

"Wait, sweetie, no one said you were bad." Roxanne said.

Mandy reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her suspension slip. She held it in the air between two fingers waiting for one of them to take it. Roxanne did.

"I wanna be home schooled again. I don't like...people I guess." She said this to Roxanne, knowing it was her mother she had to convince. "No one gets me, I don't want to have to deal with them."

Roxanne didn't want to disappoint Mandy, but she still didn't like the idea of homeschooling. She would reconsider, however, if Mandy would finally tell her the whole truth about life at school. She was always leaving something out; she never told her parents the true hardships she faced. Megamind knew he had to say something, knowing Mandy would have the same reaction to Roxanne's reasoning as he did at first. Since they were one family, they had to work together.

"Mandy, trust me," He began. "I know everything seems...pointless and boring even, but things will only get better."

Mandy hesitated, knowing that if she wanted her parents to fully understand her, she would have to start telling them the truth.

"You know why I got suspended? There are these football players who think they're my bodyguards or something, and they caught me talking to someone who actually earns his grades without being on a sports team. One of them stuffed the kid in his locker thinking he was bothering me, then I called him out on it. We didn't throw fists or anything-just, just words."

"What did they call you?" Megamind asked, without skipping a beat. He was always called names in school, but Mandy had never told them if she was being made fun of.

Mandy wanted to tell them, she wanted nothing more but to tell them the truth, but something stopped her. The same something that always stopped her.

"Can we go home? I don't want to talk about it."

…

Jeff entered his own house with caution, knowing that he would get an evaluation on his monitored "performance" the second he walked in. He opened the door and stepped into what would fool anyone as a regular house. There were family photos on the wall, video games lying around the living room, and the dog was sleeping by the door.

"Hey, dad!"

Jeff looked up to see Isaac at the top of the stairwell calling for his dad. He'd lied to Mandy when he said they were friends, because if anything, they were rivals. Isaac was his cousin, and ever since he was little, they told him that his uncle took him in after his parents died in a fire. But it wasn't just any fire, it was a fire that he started. With his mind.

"Dad, the freak's home!" Isaac yelled.

"I have a name, you know." Jeff defended himself.

"And I've never used it before, so why start now?"

Jeff tried to think of a comeback, but he knew there was no use for it.

"Heh. Hey, why don't you be like Mandy and keep your real thoughts in your head! You can do that, right? Or can you only limit somebody else's communication with your _telepathy?_"

"Shut up!" he retorted, angry at his job as well as his cousin's frequent changes in character. At school, he was the perfect actor, charming and pleasant whenever he was with Mandy, though Jeff knew he never enjoyed it. He manipulated people with his own minimal mind powers to avoid being with Mandy whenever he could help it.

Before Jeff could say another word, the sound of his uncle's heavy footsteps approaching the top of the stairwell silenced him.

"Jeffrey, my boy! My talented, genius boy!"

"I'm no genius, I'm a fraud." Jeff said under his breath.

Just his uncle walked down stairs while Isaac remained standing; watching them like a hawk. Isaac was the spitting image of his father, only shorter and skinnier. Jeff looked nothing like the rest of his family. Just by looking at them together, anyone would think he was adopted.

"What an incredible performance today! You really know how to mess with a girl's emotions!" He leaned closer to Jeff' ear and whispered, "Much better than Isaac could ever do, and he's been undercover for years!"

Isaac wasn't really listening, but he heard his name.

"Son!" Jeff's uncle said, turning to his son who was now running down the stairs. "Go to your room and 'study.' Psychic powers don't come from of thin air." He looked glanced at Jeffrey for a split second. "At least not for you."

As Isaac somewhat reluctantly went upstairs and into his room, memories flashed into Jeffrey's consciousness. Cold metal on every inch of his skin, tests that took hours and hours to perform, endless blood samples and brain scans made. These memories were all blurs to him, the government having tested on him when he was only a small child. He was the only one in the family born with these powers, and had grown up to believe that these tests were somehow going to be put to good use. He was mistaken, and now was working trapped into working for the government's most wanted felon, he himself the greatest weapon the country has ever known.

His uncle continued. "Now that subject D is beginning to step out from her boundaries, we can finally execute Plan B! Because subject A hasn't responded to any of my requests, we'll just have to stop negotiating nicely."

Jeff rolled his eyes. "We can call them by name; we know exactly who you're talking about." Jeff said, annoyed.

His uncle turned to him. He almost snapped and yelled at him for defiance, but he restrained himself. He needed Jeff on his side, at least until tomorrow. Just for one more mission.

"An act of habit, my boy. Megamind will do as we say. And if he doesn't, which I doubt, we'll have another brain to pick."


	3. The First Strike

_Updated 4/10/12_

**A/N: Ok, I re-wrote a lot of this chapter and the next one to hopefully make the plot more understandable as well as better overall. I've been toying with this fic for a while and I've finally decided to finish it, so revision was needed. Enjoy.**

16 Years Later

Chapter 3: The First Strike

Mandy got up at her regular hour, 5 a.m. Millie lay at the foot of her bed, so she inched her way off as gently as possible, as to not disturb the cyborg dog. She meandered down the stair well, her mind unable to stop dwelling on her stress.

She stepped into the kitchen to find Megamind already sitting at the table, a mug of coffee in one hand, the newspaper in the other. He looked up to see her, clad in a black shirt and sweat pants, her bare feet and arms fearlessly out in the open. Her hair was down and predictably tousled a bit, her eyes still slightly glazed over from sleep though she was the definition of a morning person. He couldn't help but smile at her as he looked back to the paper. Despite her difficulties at school and her frequent stubbornness brought on by mood swings, despite all of her flaws, she never ceased to amaze him with how effortlessly beautiful she was.

"Stop it." She deadpanned, believing she could read his thoughts. She turned around to get some water. "Why are you up so early?"

"Can't I decide to be spontaneous for a day?" Megamind replied, his eyes skimming an article as he took a sip of coffee.

"Well, when you are, you usually end up catching something on fire, or unleashing some forgotten robot of death and destruction onto the city."

He whapped the paper onto the table in front of him, his full attention now directed towards his daughter in mock frustration, being playful despite his actual distaste for no one letting the whole "button of doom" thing go. "That was one time. You weren't even born."

"Just saying." She said with a smirk, brushing off his exasperated reply. She sat across from him and watched as her regained his fatherly composure in seconds.

"I got up this early so that I could talk to you."

Mandy's eyes suddenly darted to the floor, but her father's hand was soon her chin, bringing her eyes back to his.

"We need to talk." He continued, his voice soft. "I might not know exactly what you're going through, having grown up in a prison and all, but,"

"You're the only one I can go to. I know." She finished. "One minute, I'm the most popular girl in school because I'm the daughter of Metro City's hero, and the next, I'm laughed at for the same thing. Girls either love me or hate me for my skin. Boys either won't leave me alone asking about you or can't escape from me quick enough." She sighed heavily. " I just don't know what to do."

Megamind let her head fall into her crossed arms on the table, letting his hand rest atop her head. He gave a sympathetic look, searching back many years before and remembering his own adolescence. He'd been very confused when he started school, having been taught the opposite morals of every classmate; of the entire world, it seemed. He felt the world was against him, which made it extremely easy to slip into his evil ways, it having felt so natural to rebel at the time.

"Mandy." He said, beckoning for her to lift her head. She didn't, but he continued, leaning over the table to be that much closer to her. "All you have to do is be yourself. That's what I tried to do at first, back when I fought against Metro Man. But I was wrong. I didn't even really know what evil was, not until I met Hal."

Mandy knew all the stories, she'd heard them far too many times as a child, having loved them then. She knew what he meant; Hal had been a power hungry, heartbroken mess with god-like abilities thrust upon the city in a misguided attempt at filling the void of purpose in her father's life. Hal had wanted to destroy the entire city from the bitterness that plagued his heart after being used and rejected, while her father simply knew any form of destruction or rebellion to be the only way to live; the only way to feel fulfilled.

"You realized that you have a good heart. And always have." She said, though muffled a bit at the beginning as she lifted her head up to see her father's loving gaze.

He smiled a soft smile, Mandy mirroring it. He let his hand cup her cheek as he kissed her forehead. He pulled back a moment later and tucked her hair behind her ear, giving a breath of laughter when she began to protest.

"I hate when my hairs' behind my ears."

"And I love it." Megamind replied. "So get used to it. I'm the boss of you."

"Not in three more years."

"And a long three years it'll be with that attitude."

...

Mandy was walking to school with Millie that morning. She still needed someone to talk to.

"I know Mom's right, and so is Dad. Maybe I'm making school sound worse than it really is. Am I really just overreacting? I mean, it's only been, what, four months?" She looked down at her dog, who was shaking her head. "Three?" Millie nodded. Mandy sighed. "Six suspensions in Three months? And Mom doesn't think that sounds bad. I'd like to see her permanent record."

They got to the bus stop and Mandy sat down at the bench, watching as the city slowly woke before her eyes. When others walked by, she was unable to stop herself from imagining her in their eyes. They're minding their own business when suddenly they cross paths with the only half-human on the planet. What do they say, what do they do? Nothing, if they have any shred of decency.

"Be myself, Millie? Who am I, really, if not the great Megamind's daughter?" she said, looking down at her dog. Millie just stood there and looked concerned, tilting her head and letting her ears flop behind her head.

When Mandy looked back up, thinking that she should make Millie a voice box, she saw Jeff standing at the corner waiting for the bus. He waved, so she decided to walk over.

"Hey, Mandy. You're up early. Not another hour until school starts."

"So I guess we have something in common then, huh?"

"Yeah..." Jeff said. He had to get to the point; he had to use a mind trick to knock her out, uncle's orders. He didn't want to; he only wanted both of them to be free. He felt sorry for Mandy, she knew that she had little freedom at school, but she had no clue why.

It was all because of him. The pressure was crushing him on both sides. Continue to be blackmailed by your only family members or rebel and fight a good fight; an honorable one. He felt his heart sinking as the coward inside won him over.

"I'm sorry Mandy..." He whispered.

Mandy didn't quite catch what he said, but suddenly felt close to passing out.

"Jeff, what's happening?" she said faintly as she lost her balance. He caught her before she fell, but he couldn't bear to do this to her. He let go of his psychic grip.

"I'm sorry Mandy!" He cried, helping her onto her knees, taking her arms and looking into her eyes, a real fear etched into his face. "I'm a fake! Isaac's a fake! You've got to get out of here fast before-"

Jeff felt a shock of electricity pulse through his body before he completely black out. Isaac stood behind him with a taser.

Mandy regained her strength, but was completely lost. "Isaac, what's going on?"

Isaac snickered. "You'll know pretty soon."

…

Mandy woke up in a daze and didn't know where she was. She tried to look around, but couldn't move her head. She quickly realized that she was strapped to a chair, captive. The room was perfectly white from what she could make of it; lights shining brightly in her eyes like at the dentist's office. There was nothing in the room but surveillance cameras and a flat screen taking up the entire wall across from her..

She tried to remember what had happened before she apparently passed out, but nothing came, leaving her to wonder how anyone could possibly have kidnap her. Where was Millie? Where was dad? Not in her whole life had she been kidnapped, no one could thwart her father-no one.

Her memory was slowly coming back as she woke up a little more. She remembered Jeff telling her to go home. She remembered that she told him that Isaac was a fake. What did that mean? She remembered Isaac and the menacing look on his face. Had he kidnapped her? Were they working together? Who were they working for?

She tried squirming her way out of her restraints, but immediately after doing so, the doors burst open and two men in white masks and white lab coats got on either side of her-more restraints.

A TV screen came down from the ceiling and turned on to a face that she was unfamiliar with.

"Good afternoon, princess."

Mandy was extremely offended by this. Kids back in kindergarten would try to aggravate her buy calling her the "princess of Metro City," but a grown man? How did he even know about that? Probably coincidence, but it made her suspicious nonetheless. Despite her frustration, she decided to try to make this fun, like she'd seen her father do so many times.

"Princess? You must be talking to one of these guys." she countered, sarcastically.

"Very funny, Amanda." The man replied behind the window. He was tall and predictably intimidating, one of those commanding officer types, but not a general villain type, Mandy noted. But the mystery was yet to unfold.

"Amanda? Now I know you're talking to one of these guys-"

"Enough! You are a prisoner of the United States Army, and you will remain that way until we get what we want!"

"The Army? Wha-who are you? Why am I here? What do you want?"

The man laughed at her ignorance. He thought it would be funny to tell her the whole truth, but this was no game.

"You can call me...Overlord of all United Forces. My spies have taken control of all military forces since you've been asleep, and since your father has been busy trying to thwart me, he doesn't even know you're gone."

Mandy's eyes widened in inevitable surprise, her stomach twisting at the uncertainty of her fate. She stared at this man, partly because she was unable to look away, in disbelief. In all her life, she'd never actually believed she'd be in the middle of one of her father's battles. Now here she was, in a mystery she'd been unknowingly part of for three months now.

…

"I seriously don't know where he went. He was here and knocked out just a second ago." One spy said to his counterpart, a hand shooting up to his head as he winced in pain. A small device the size of a Bluetooth were attached to their ears, electric waves being sent to them every minute, keeping them on task. They assumed the rest of the military force had been dealt with similarly.

"Get a hold of yourself." The other said, hiding his own pain whilst doing so. "He's a psychic, maybe he blocked the attack somehow and ran off. Come on, he can't far!"

After the two spies left Millie's sight, she kept herself and Jeff invisible while she took him by his sweat shirt and flew off to her family's apartment. Invisibility wouldn't keep them off radar, but hopefully, she could ward off being tracked with another device infused in her brain: Playing Dead.

…

Roxanne received Millie's distress signal right in the middle of an information meeting. The Armed Forces were doing badly, and Megamind was virtually useless without a thought out plan and enough information about who was behind all this. She had a terribly bad feeling that Mandy had something to do with this, or was at least in trouble some other way. Millie was not one to use to distress signal lightly. She immediately left without an explanation.

…

Roxanne came home to find Minion and Millie tending to a boy just waking up. She didn't know this boy, but was not thrown by his presence. Weird and unexplained happenings were the least of her problems now.

The boy looked over to Roxanne and almost fell off the couch in surprise.

"Mrs. Ritchie!" He cried, his breath thin, his breathing close to erratic. "Oh my gosh-Mandy must be at the base by now!" he paused, taking a second to look around and think, though still very much flustered. "How'd I get here?"

"Millie flew you here, and then she called Mrs. Ritchie." Minion answered.

"Wait, who are you and what was that about Mandy?" Roxanne asked.

Jeff sat up straight and tried to explain things, but didn't really know where to begin.  
"I'm Jeff, I'm a psychic." he paused, looking at the faces of his small, yet oddly assorted audience. He started again, "Yes, we do exist. And...I'm regretfully apart of a terrible scheme..." He cringed and waited for something to happen, but nothing did. He turned to Minion. "Is there some sort of signal canceller around?"

"Millie is equipped with an advanced multi-signal canceller. Why?" Minion answered.

"Well, usually when I try to tell that my uncle abuses my powers in his plot to defeat Megamind, he sends an electric wave that prevents me from saying so."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up!" Roxanne interrupted. "Let's start from the beginning. What happened to Mandy? Then tell us the plot."

Jeff hesitated, still afraid of whether he was being watched, Roxanne could tell.

"Look," Roxanne said, sitting next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder, having seen the fear in the boy's eyes. "This entire building is secure. No one's going to listen in on us or find you. You're safe."

Jeff nodded, thankful for her motherly comfort. "First time probably in my life." He sighed. "Mandy has been captured by my uncle, a former US army general."

Roxanne gasped. Questions filled her mind, but she let Jeff continue.

"It was my uncle's idea to ask Megamind to build new military weapons, but after so many rejection letters from Megamind himself let alone the rest of the government after he insisted that they force him, they discharged him, they even canceled the top secret experiment he was funding, which he still was able to finish and steal. It's his most powerful weapon."

"What is?" Roxanne asked, a strong curiosity in her voice.

"Me." He admitted. "I was really little. He took me in after my parents died. I know we're not actually related, and I know he's lied to me about that to keep me from trying to rebel against him. But what's important is that they did tests on me and made a machine that can harness psychic energy. Now there's a portable device that has a brainwashing effect on anyone who's wearing it. He taught himself, his son, Isaac, and a few others to harness that energy to extent while wearing the devices to help him get away with all of this."

"Wait, Isaac?" Roxanne asked, dreading it to be the Isaac she thought it was.

Jeffrey nodded regretfully. "I know that at first, Isaac was really Mandy's friend. He had no idea what his dad was trying to do to Megamind, and he has no control of the brainwashing, his mind is too weak. I...I controlled the minds of the teenagers who never let her out of their sight so that she would feel trapped." He hesitated, it was too horrible to tell Mandy's parent the truth about the terrible things he'd done, but he had to do it. "But she's too smart to really fall for that; she would break away too easily. So we had to act fast. We've been at this since school started three months ago. I'm the reason Mandy's been so depressed."

Roxanne could see Jeff's disgust with himself and hated to ask him nagging questions, but she needed to know. "Why did you have to restrict Mandy when you-your uncle was after Megamind?"

"It was his back-up plan." Jeff answered immediately. "He was going to kidnap Mandy if Megamind kept refusing, and he almost used me to do that-but I couldn't! I don't want to live a lie anymore!"

"Don't worry Jeff," Roxanne said, reassuringly, almost like a superhero. "You made the right choice. We're going to fix this."

**thanx again dedicated readers, I'm writing this for the fans because the world deserves a sequel!**


	4. Doubts and Decision

**A/N: I'm apologizing in advance for how annoying and possibly cliché this chapter will inevitably be for you. It's one of those purely plot setting chapters with hardly any fun in it. Please give it a try. Enjoy.**

16 Years Later

Chapter 4: Doubts and Decision

It was beginning to get dark. Megamind was coming home from a meeting with the city council, having opted to run by the lair to find anything that might help them in this fight. The invisible car sped past unknowing civilians on autopilot, too tired to speed with confidence at the moment.

"Megamind, where are you?"

Megamind heard Roxanne's voice from his radio and replied to the message. "Coming home, I can't get through the military's security alone."

"Alright, I have a lot to tell you when you get back."

…

"So, let me get this straight." Megamind said after absorbing all the information Jeff had to give.

"Mandy's been..._KIDNAPPED._"

Jeff felt a terrible chill down his spine as Megamind said the word "kidnapped." He could feel the frustration in his voice and could see he was trying to hide it. It took a few seconds for him to calm down. They looked each other in the eyes and Megamind realized how helpless Jeff was of his own fate and forgave him.

"Well," Megamind began, "at least you're safe. We need you to help us defeat your uncle."

Jeff lit up, thankful that the savior of Metro City wasn't furious with him. "Will do."

"Now, we need to make a full proof plan, we can't keep hitting them and retreating and so on." Megamind said. "The people of Metrocity have been hounding me about attacking our own men, so we can't even really 'hit them'"

"You're right," Roxanne agreed. "But we can disengage what's controlling them, can't we? We need to stop them at the heart. Jeff, you either need to stay here or have Millie with you at all times so that your uncle can't track you."

"It'll be easier to manipulate minds if I'm closer to them, so I'll have to come with you." Jeff promptly replied. "Plus I know where the machine is."

"Perfect." Megamind said. He promptly knelt down and pet Millie, looking at her enhancements. "I'll have to spend some time tuning her up, she's not meant to be a psychic shield, but she will be."

…

"We've been running tests all day, sir, nothing can penetrate her mind, it's _much_too advanced." said a scientist to the Overlord. "We've barely made an effect on her."

"She's half human! You should be able to get something! A memory, a thought, something!" The Overlord roared.

"I'm sorry, General—I mean Overlord, but our computers are too weak. Another mind as advanced as hers would have to penetrate her memories. The only brain at that capacity that exists is Megamind's-"

"What about psychics? Is Jeffrey powerful enough?"

"Even with those kinds of powers, sir, if he were to fail, his mind would be lost in hers."

"But is he powerful enough?"

"No, sir. But, if I my make a suggestion, if we're waiting on Megamind, why are we even bothering to do these tests on his daughter? She was just the bait-"

"She is not just the bait, you weak minded fool!" The Overlord retorted, standing so that he was now a full head taller than his assistant. "If we can crack her mind, then we have a super villain with just as much brain power as Metro City's precious super hero!"

"S-sir! That kind of brain transformation will take years to figure out at this rate! It took us years to harness a simple transmission device, but to convert an alien with ten times the memory capacity of a human? With thirty times the learning capacity—"

"Just get on with it and do as I say!" The Overlord interjected, forcing waves of painful energy at the assistant, nearly knocking him off of his feet.

"Yes sir!" the scientist mechanically replied, a side effect of the brain waves.

The Overlord swung himself in his chair and returned to watching Mandy's brain frequencies from his many computer monitors. Under these types of tests, they managed to sedate her. Despite his bitterness toward the alien species, he couldn't help but marvel at her brain, his mind concocting hundreds of ways to exploit it through scientific research.

Isaac came into the control room drinking coffee. It was one o' clock in the morning.

"Dad," Isaac said, "they're not gonna find her. You should relax; the guys are working as hard as they can."

The Overlord slowly wheeled his chair 180 degrees to face his son with a blank stare.

"You know how hard we've worked for this! There's no time to relax when we're so close to Megamind's surrender!" the Overlord roared again, getting up from his seat. "When we're so close to creating a new super villain!"

"But dad, come on, why are we even doing this? Megamind's a good guy-"

"Who is the cause of my discharge! The cause of all the waste of my hard work! We could have done so much more with the project if we had the government back up, we could have changed the world with our new technology. We could have figured out how to infuse psychic powers permanently—"

"By exploiting Jeff some more while we're at it! We've put him through enough. He knew we've been lying to him!"

His father gave him a stern look. "How?"

Isaac didn't hesitate to answer, not a trace of fear in him. "I told him. A long time ago, before you made me wear this _thing_every day!" Before The Overlord could react, he grabbed at the device on the side of his face and ripped it from its place, wires splitting and sparks flying. His device had been a permanent surgery case, the only one of its kind. He cried in pain, but momentarily felt his mind at ease from any grip of control.

The Overlord fumed in anger. He thrashed at his son, gripping the device and pushing it back into his skull, pulsed psychic waves directly into the side of his face, fusing the device back together, rewiring Isaac into the sinister once again. Isaac's mind had slowly been growing stronger, growing resistant to the brainwashing and frequently slipping back into his natural good nature, but it had never been this bad. The fusing took a lot out of both of them, Isaac falling back on the wall while his father fell back into his chair.

After a moment, Isaac woke up from his slight trance and looked up at his father.

"You called?" he asked.

"Yes, I need you to find your...'cousin.'"

Isaac snickered at this request, knowing that when he was brought back, he would never see the light of day again for his betrayal.

…

Megamind was talking to Jeff as he was updating Millie's shield. Minion came in with extra parts that Megamind had asked for.

"His original Plan B was to just lure you to his lair with Mandy, but I doubt it's that simple, he's too much of an opportunist to not do any tests on her."

"Tests?" Megamind repeated, the taste of the word repulsing. "What kind of tests?"

"Brain wave tests, mostly. He'll probably scan her brain and measure its capacity. If I had to guess, he's probably trying to find a way to brain wash her like he did the rest of them."

"Why didn't he give you one of those...mind...washing things?" Minion asked, unknowing of what the device was actually called.

"It's called a Wave Transmitter. I don't have on because I'm immune to it. He also decided to try and get on my good side until he didn't need me. I was lucky Millie found me." He pet Millie, her tail inevitably wagging with appreciation, subsequently getting in Megamind's way.

Jeff continued. "If he didn't have better use for her alive, he'd want to...well—"

"I get it." Megamind said. "I've seen enough movies about alien invasions to know what humans would most likely dissect us if they had the chance. I'd be a better bet, being purely alien to this planet. I've done some harmless tests on my own. Our only real difference is brain power and skin color. Our organic structure is functionally identical."

"He's not interested in any of that. It's brain chemistry he has a knack for."

"I can imagine he's done these 'tests' on you?"

"More than I can count." Jeff replied warily. "I wish I didn't have these powers. I've only done wrong with them."

"Hey." Megamind interjected. "Tonight, we're going to change that."

"Can we really undo all the wrong I've done?" He sounded skeptical.

"Well, all we have to do is find the master machine after somehow getting through the levels and levels of army personnel trying to kill us, then find your uncle and thwart him before he tries to brainwash Mandy." Minion said matter-of-factly. "Did I miss anything?"

"How about a shred of optimism." Megamind retorted, the two of them always able to find some kind of humor in these catastrophic happenings. Jeff was yet to be convinced.

"Growing up," the boy started, "the only good I ever really saw was when we saw you on the news. Uncle said what you were doing was wrong, but I always knew it was the other way around."

Megamind looked up from his work, humbled a bit. "Then you were smarter then I was at your age." He said, remembering the conversation he'd had very early in the morning with Mandy. "Your heart is stronger than your mind. You may not think you're good enough to be good, but heroes aren't born. They're made."

Megamind finished what he was doing with Millie and synched her up. He got up. "I'm going to check with Roxanne. We'll leave soon."

He found Roxanne in their bedroom walk-in closet, looking through the hand weapons that she knew how to use. Her personal favorite was the dehydration gun, a classic in her mind. Also strangely non-violent.

"Roxanne, are you sure about this?" Megamind said in an almost uncharacteristically soft voice.

She looked at him sonically for a moment, but quickly understood the sincerity of his concern. "She's my daughter, too. I'm not letting you leave without me."

"I know, I know." Megamind said. "It's just..." He couldn't quite explain it, but he never usually got this worried. Maybe it was because of the fact that his long time nightmares were finally coming true and he feared more tragedy would become of it. Whenever Roxanne came with him on missions to avenge the city, he had little to no trouble with it, his faith in her unwavering if anything. She truly was the smartest person he knew, besides Mandy, now.

But this mission was no ordinary mission. "I can't lose both of you. You're all I have."

Roxanne set the gun down and embraced him tightly, whispering, "We haven't lost her. And I'm not going anywhere." She pulled back just far enough to see his face. "We're going to get her back. Don't doubt that."

His eyes didn't leave hers, they couldn't. He loved her eyes and how he could get lost in them, even at times like this. Among being one of the smartest people he knew, she was also the strongest, and at times, the funniest. How he pined to see her dizzying smile, but he was afraid that it would not be fulfilling at the moment, given the circumstance. He would have to wait until they'd saved Mandy; until everything was set right again.

He fruitlessly searched for words that would be a clever or at least valid as form of reply. He eventually said the only thing that came to mind.

"I love you." It said it all. He trusted her. He would follow her to ends of the earth. He loved their daughter, and there was no doubt in his mind that they would do all they could to get her back. She kissed him for that, feeling so lucky to have found someone as caring as Megamind. They would get Mandy back, no matter the cost.


	5. Infiltration

**A/N: For those of you who are subscribed, I re-wrote the last few chapters, so you might want to re-acquaint yourself with the story.**

**I don't know about you, but I'm getting annoyed with this Overlord guy, he's too flat of a character for my taste, and I wrote him for crying out loud! Granted that was more than a year ago, but still. If anyone wants some depth to this guy, please say so, because I can re-write some details. Or just tell me I'm being over critical of myself, it happens.**

**Anyway, please enjoy . I'm trying to make this as Dreamworks-esk as I possibly can. Let me know how I'm doing?**

Chapter 5: Infiltration

Minion was driving the invisible car while Megamind dialed up City Hall, trying to get to the Mayor. The answering machine picked up, saying:

_No one is available at the moment; we will forward your message to the Overlord._

Megamind hung up, turning in his seat to face Roxanne and Jeffrey.

"We're too late. He's already gotten to City Hall."

"We should split up then, two of us can take back City Hall while the other two go to the military base." Roxanne suggested.

"Ok." Megamind nodded. "Jeffrey, you're with me. We'll disable the machine while Roxanne and Minion investigate at City Hall. Sounds like a plan."

…

When Mandy woke up, she was alone once again. Her head was free of bracing, so she looked around. It looked as if the equipment now surrounding her was attached to the walls. She concluded that the walls must be able to move.

_So there are secrets hatches in here._ She thought. _If only I could free myself…_

She looked down at her restraints. Leather, tight on her wrists and ankles. If Millie was there, she would have easily used her laser vision to cut through them, even chew through them if she had to. She checked her pockets as best she could and realized that they had taken the "Pocket Knife" she always kept on her. That could have easily cut through the restraints using the various hyper tools it acquired.

She looked around and saw her belongings on a table not ten feet away. She had a nice Freeze Ray in her backpack that could help her after she escaped, which was what she planned on doing. The weapon was something her dad liked her to have, just in case, one of the many small secrets they kept from Roxanne. Lucky for Mandy, they hadn't found her Invisible Wrist Magnet, another secret from her mother. It was made to attract small objects that were specified in calibration. She at first struggled with making it visible so that she could activate the holographic keypad. Suddenly, once she remembered the surveillance camera, she realized that she needed to somehow take it out. She could easily destroy it with the magnet, but that would only draw attention to her, and she had no idea who was watching her or why she was alone.

Once she got the hologram up, she activated the camouflage screen, which took her picture and projected it onto the chair while simultaneously keeping her invisible. That was a trick she invented after watching the new Mission Impossible movie. She loved the idea of a challenge, even if the technology was "movie magic," it was always worth a try. The attitude was something she knew she inherited from both her parents.

Though her invention was awesome, it was a bit flawed because she had to hold her wrist up in the chair's direction as she moved, and slowly, so that the projection didn't fade or crack. As she made her way to the table with her back pack and Pocket Knife, she looked around at the equipment in the room, trying to find some sort of control panel to see if she could escape through any holes in the wall. She slipped on her back pack and latched the gun and utility knife to her belt while holding her wrist up to prolong the illusion as she thought for a moment.

Her plans were interrupted when a door opened, guards and scientists coming in. She remained perfectly still as they walked to her projection, completely ignorant to the missing items on the table in front of her, having been cloaked by her touch of invisibility. She quickly backed out of the door that was about to close, knowing her previous plan to escape into the walls was ill fated. Closing the projection and leaving the military personnel inside speechless, she left the room. The door slid closed when she exited, so she took out the freeze ray and sealed the door shut, knowing that the laser would have worked better, but time was of the essence. She ran, trying to be a nimble as she could to be perfectly unnoticeable.

When she turned a corner, she bumped into someone and they grabbed her. It was the Overlord.

"I can see you." He said.

She didn't know how, or if he was lying, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. She shot ice at him, her angle limited, her shot creating a block of ice around his right leg. He hissed at the cold, but pin pointed her wrist device and slammed her wrist against the wall, effectively destroying her illusion. She cringed, but gave no sound of hurt, unwilling to have this man see her at any point of weakness.

"Pull another stunt like that and your parents will pay." He said, handing her to a few brainwashed guards.

"You don't have my parents!" She retorted angrily.

He laughed and turned, forcefully kicking his leg to the steel wall corner, shattering the ice around it into small scattering shards. He turned back to her, wanting to see fear in her eyes, but only finding anger.

"We will."

…

Roxanne and Minion were dropped off just a block away City Hall with the intention of sneaking in.

"How are we going to get in without getting caught? There are cameras everywhere, and probably guards." Roxanne said, trying to look inconspicuous sitting outside of a café. Minion was wearing a trench coat and wig that made him look like an obese woman with a face lift at first glance, but it was better than looking like a fish in a robotic gorilla suit.

"We can try the secret entrance I made back when the boss was Evil Overlord." Minion said nonchalantly.

Roxanne lowered her sunglasses and glared at the alien fish. "_Secret entrance_? You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?"

"I wanted a latte." Minion shrugged.

Roxanne got up and dragged the half robot to his feet. "Ok, where is it? Assuming they haven't already found it and terminated it."

"Easy, it's in here." Minion said as he guided Roxanne into the café. Roxanne was unfazed by the fact that it was in the men's bathroom, she secretly agreed that it was a smart choice while it excluded half of the human race that would actually be smart enough to stumble upon something such as a secret entrance. They entered a stall and Minion pushed three buttons that were made to look like bricks in the wall. The entire section of wall slid down, revealing a stair case that led to a tunnel.

"Underground. Pretty smart." Roxanne admitted. "I expected a fake wall, like the one at the lair."

"Oh, don't worry Mrs. Richie." Minion said. "We've got one of those at the end of the tunnel."

They ran the distance towards the entrance, soon enough coming up to an intersection of three different walls.

"These are all fake, two lead to alligator pits, while the one is to City Hall."

"What is it with alligators? Did you guys learn all your tricks from old horror films?"

Minion remained silent, answering her question in the affirmative. She looked around, quickly finding a thistle mat labeled "Not the secret entrance." She pointed at it.

"I think I found our wall."

…

Mandy was being dragged down the hall of the military base, the Overlord just a step behind her and limping, his leg still a bit numb from the block of ice. A voice addressed him over his radio.

"Sir, we've spotted Megamind's side kick and wife in the secret entrance to City Hall. They might be planning a liberation."

He picked up the radio, watching Mandy's reaction as she strained to hear the voice, having heard the part about Roxanne and Minion.

"Good. Any sign of the blue wonder?"

"Not an affirmative one, sir. Our cameras have been shorting out, and but we've only seen Jeffrey on camera."

"Jeffrey?" He laughed with full heartedly. "Our little mind reader is actually willingly coming towards us?"

"In an attempt to save me…" Mandy said, practically speechless that he would do such a thing.

"A wasted attempt." The Overlord retorted.

"Our guards are unresponsive, more and more are losing communication every minute. Someone's with him, we know that much. We believe he's heading towards the head Wave Machine."

"Cut them off. No matter what happens, don't let them reach that machine. And contact Isaac, tell him to be at City Hall to grab these 'liberators' for me."

"Roger that, sir."

As Mandy was dragged into a new room, this one dark and filled with what looked like medical equipment, she thought about saying something like, "You'll never get away with this," or, "My dad is unbeatable," but thwarted herself with the thought that they were too cliché. She was trapped to yet another chair, her things taken by the guards and kept with them this time. The Overlord stood in front of her, a light flashing in her face like this was some kind of interrogation.

"I'll give you an ultimatum." He said, meeting her glare. "You finish building my new machine, or you'll never see your parents again. Or anything else for that matter."

Mandy was caught off guard. With so little knowledge about what was going on, she'd come to the conclusion that he was testing her and scanning her brain because of her alien heritage. But new pieces of the puzzle were in her hands, far from being placed. Why had he called Jeffrey mind reader? Why was this suddenly new machine so important to finish? What machine was her dad and Jeffrey after?

She didn't want to cave in, but she felt it was the smartest choice. If she refused, he would definitely kill her. If her father was all he wanted, she'd already served her purpose as bait, and with her life threatened, her father would do more than just fix a very mysterious and potentially dangerous machine. Her family was at risk, and all she could do was try and buy time.

"Fine. I'll finish your machine."


End file.
